Tether doesn't add any value to the cryptocurrency world.
It's actually more useful then 90% of all the current cryptos in circulation, it offers a way out, when bitcoin is crashing etc. Like gold kind of is for the "real" petroleum dollar.
I don't think they can store such a value at a bank account, their whole business is shady and hard to explain. Also it was meant to be redeemable, means that you could transform them back to USD, which would cause your USDT to be destroyed, yet it seams no USDT was ever destroyed. Nobody would redeem it? Not even for curiosity? Suspicious, to say the least...
Sorry if I didn't properly explain myself, my point is about BTC markets. Due to this "magic money making machine" the market could be inflated and in the verge of collapse as soon as Tether collapses, a MtGox part 2.0.
Do you think this is a point of concern or the exchanges on "Tether steroids" won't be able to hurt the market?
While i agree with you that their operations are shady, ( I don't get why they won't do something like an audit by a third party). i don't see why a company as big as Bitfinex would risk losing all their users/customers for a couple billion, while their average volume is ~2 billion each day.
Also, something to note is that when they create/print the USDT and sell it ( for 1$ marketprice), it would automatically be backed 1:1 (although that would then be in BTC/other crypto and not $$, which means it could fluctuate alot).. -- right ?
There's an old audit report to be found here - > where there's an estimated backing of around 400 million?
https://tether.to/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Final-Tether-Consulting-Report-9-15-17_Redacted.pdf